Disposable, wearable articles having an inner, body-facing, liquid pervious component, an intermediate, absorbent, liquid-retaining component and an outer, garment-facing, liquid-impervious component are well known. Articles of that type are commonly available in the form of disposable diapers, disposable underwear, pull-on diapers and training pants, incontinence pads, incontinence briefs, sanitary napkins, pantiliners, and the like. Such articles generally include a flexible, liquid-impervious outercover (i.e., backsheet) that is adapted to be positioned between an absorbent component of the article and the clothing of the wearer, to prevent wetting or soiling of the wearer's clothing when the article is in use.
In order to provide improved comfort to the wearer of disposable absorbent articles, certain components of the articles, such as a backsheet, in addition to providing imperviousness to liquids, desirably permit the passage therethrough of moisture vapor and also preferably air, to help maintain dryness and to reduce the humidity adjacent the wearer's body. An impervious polymeric film to which breathability has been imparted to allow air and moisture vapor transmission through the film is disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 3,156,342, entitled “Flexible Absorbent Sheet,” which issued on Nov. 10, 1964, to G. A. Crowe, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,489, entitled “Breathable, Liquid Impervious Backsheet for Absorbent Devices,” which issued on May 6, 1975 to Edward Wallace Hartwell, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,867, entitled “Absorbent Devices Having Porous Backsheet,” which issued on Nov. 2, 1976, to James Bryant Sisson; U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,751, entitled “Process for Stretching an Impregnated Film of Material and The Microporous Product Produced Thereby,” which issued on May 8, 1979, to Eckhard C. A. Schwarz; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,256, entitled “Microporous Sheet Material, Method of Making and Articles Made Therewith,” which issued on Sep. 3, 1985, to Gene H. Shipman.
In addition to imperviousness to liquids, and pervious to moisture vapor and air, the backsheet also preferably includes a cloth-like outer surface, which provides a softer feel, and also a more appealing visual appearance, as compared with the outer surface of a smooth, flat plastic film. Two-ply backsheets that provide a desirable, more cloth-like appearance for such disposable, wearable articles are also known. In that regard, U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,092, entitled “Absorbent Article with Dynamic Elastic Waist Feature Having a Predisposed Resilient Flexural Hinge,” which issued on Sep. 29, 1992, to Kenneth B. Buell, et al., discloses a disposable diaper backsheet formed either from a woven or a nonwoven material, a polymeric film, or a composite material in the form of a film-coated, nonwoven material. That patent also discloses the step of embossing of a plastic film backsheet to provide a more cloth-like appearance to a plastic film.
Also known to those skilled in the art are methods for imparting extensibility to an otherwise substantially inelastic material, which may be employed as a backsheet. For example, the use of corrugating rolls to laterally or longitudinally stretch and to simultaneously provide a corrugated form to thin plastic films is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,892, entitled “Process for Stretching Incremental Portions of an Orientable Thermoplastic Substrate and Product Thereof,” which issued on Sep. 26, 1978, to Eckhard C. A. Schwarz; U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,741, entitled “Diaper With Waistband Elastic,” which issued on May 30, 1989, to Reinhardt N. Sabee; U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,793, entitled “Method for Incrementally Stretching Zero Strain Stretch Laminate Sheet In A Non-Uniform manner To Impart A Varying Degree Of Elasticity Thereto,” which issued on Oct. 20, 1992, to Kenneth B. Buell et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,897, entitled “Method for Incrementally Stretching A Zero Strain Stretch Laminate Sheet To Impart Elasticity Thereto,” which issued on Dec. 1, 1992 to Gerald M. Webber et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,172, entitled “Elastic Laminated Sheet of An Incrementally Stretched Nonwoven Fibrous Sheet and Elastomeric Film and Method,” which issued on Jun. 6, 1995, to Pai-Chuan Wu. The corrugating rolls disclosed in each of those patents are employed in carrying out a process sometimes referred to as “ring-rolling,” to locally stretch and form corrugations in the material, in order to impart a greater degree of stretchability to selected portions of a sheet or web that may serve as a backsheet for disposable absorbent articles. Such backsheets can include both a polymeric film and an overlying and contacting layer of nonwoven, fibrous material.
Although there have been significant product improvements in recent years that have resulted in improved functioning and increased consumer acceptance of disposable absorbent articles, it is still desirable to provide an improved material having optimal physical properties relating to permeability to water vapor and air, and impermeability to liquid. Additionally, the improved material should desirably have the optimal properties that are particularly useful in an absorbent article, such as good liquid impact value, and air flow rate. It is further desirable that the improved material has a soft, cloth-like outer surface and extensibility useful for comfort and fit provided by absorbent articles containing such a material.
It would also be advantageous to provide an economical method for modifying a pre-formed web or laminate to have desirable properties which can be used as a structural component or an extensible component of a disposable absorbent article.